


What They Say

by nfra3711



Category: Tennis no Oujisama | Prince of Tennis
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-13
Updated: 2014-04-13
Packaged: 2018-01-19 04:49:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1455994
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nfra3711/pseuds/nfra3711
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hogwarts AU. Shiraishi and Yukimura first encounter each other during their third year.</p>
            </blockquote>





	What They Say

Yukimura grunted, low hisses accompanied with tiny complains escaping his lips every now and then. He didn’t believe it- refuse to believe it. He messed up. He messed up big time and now he had successfully and gracefully allowed himself to be put in detention by no other than the House Head slash professor. Though the said professor never specified, as he only made sure that Yukimura would ‘catch up with his class work’ or it would end up unwantedly messy. And Yukimura was obviously not happy with that. Never in his life had he ever failed something, not on his watch. He always grew up to be that smart student who was always on top of his classes, and having something like this happening to him brought him nothing but shame and disgrace. For the love of everything in the world, why must the Head of his House be the professor for... Potions.

It wasn’t that he was particularly ungifted in that particular field. Had he wanted to, he would pass the class with flying colors just fine. It was something else, something else strong enough that brought him back from putting all and everything he had into his work; and no matter how much he wanted to, he knew that such a reason wouldn’t grant him good name in the eyes of his educators.

He sighed. He had been sitting there in the library for what it felt like hours. He felt, and knew for sure, that he had done nothing but waste those hours in vain. There were only a few lines written down on the scroll lying there below his nose and to make it worse, those lines looked like nothing but random scribbles that surely meant nothing intelligent.

Yukimura rolled his eyes and threw himself back against the backrest of his seat, throwing his quill away. He really wasn’t up for this.

He shifted his eyes to the window, revealing to him a sight from the outside. It was already dark, figures, he couldn’t even remember what he was doing for the past couple of hours or so. 

He looked back at the practically untouched work on the table. His guts were telling him that he better just go to hell with it and return to his dorm room now, to get some nice proper sleep while he could. But his much too educated brain reminded him strictly that that piece was due in the next morning and if he didn’t give so much attempt to do well on it, he would receive nothing but more shame than he already did that very morning. Just imagining it flipped his stomach and was enough to make him feel perturbed.

“Fine” he hissed, at what but himself, he wasn’t sure. But he reached back for his thrown quill and grabbed it, eyes focusing back towards the scroll and the few textbooks in front of him, laid and open ready to assist him.

He gripped on his quill a little tighter, determined to get this thing done no matter what before the night ended. He was about to succeed on writing down the very first word before he heard a crash happening just right on the neighboring aisle. Surprised and almost jolting off his seat, he stood up by reflex and looked the way the noise was coming from. As expected, he could see nothing but a pile of books, some light and some seem to be a little too thick and heavy, now scattered unruly across the floor. He scoffed, way to drag him out of his focus.

“Ouch, ouch, ouch…”

There was a low groan coming from the pile of books, before the rumble moved, books dropping to the floor causing even more noise, and Yukimura wished he could put a curse to whoever that was clumsy enough to be driving themselves into a shelf this late at night.

The figure stood up, dusting off his trousers that now seem to be a little dusty. His shirt was somewhat all crumpled up and his vest wasn’t looking perfectly ironed (though Yukimura could let him go with that, seeing that it was that late and no one should be there to begin with). The yellow hued stripes on his vest and the slightly loosened tie hanging lazily around his neck identified him as a Hufflepuff.

“Aaah, that won’t do, Kaburiel!” The Hufflepuff complained, running his hand through his own hair as if it would help with anything, seeing that it was messy enough as it was. “I told you, no flying off your cage at night!”

Yukimura raised an eyebrow. Either this boy was sleepwalking, was put on some very stupid spell by someone as a prank, or he was just a weirdo who loved talking to thin air. Whichever option it may be, it didn’t seem he was a healthy fellow.

“What if that pesky little janitor found you…” The other guy sighed. No matter what he still looked like he was talking to nothing. Was it a ghost? No, no, if it was, Yukimura would’ve seen it too, wouldn’t he?

“Ah!”

Yukimura blinked. The guy was now staring at him and Yukimura wasn’t sure if he was looking at him or _through_ him.

“I’m sorry, was I disturbing you?”

So he was looking at him, much to Yukimura’s relief.

“I didn’t know anyone would still be around this late at night,” he laughed, rubbing the back of his head. At least he was friendly.

“Don’t be sorry.” Yukimura replied, “But I think we’ll have to do something about the mess you just caused.”

For a moment he stared at nothing but the pile of books lying there on the floor, and then, as if he was struck with realization that he had, indeed, just caused a mess, he pitched out an ‘Ooh!’ which almost made Yukimura jolt in his place. This guy’s sure got energy.

“You’re right, you’re right!” He immediately bent down to pick up the books, and Yukimura thought it was the normal thing to do. But there was something quite peculiar that he caught him doing. The guy, he wasn’t just simply scooping the books up his arms. Although barely noticeable, he carefully sorted through the mess, getting the thickest, largest book right on the bottom of the stack resting on his arm, and the smaller ones on the top. It was as if he was arranging them before he even put them onto the shelf, for some reason.

“You know we don’t sort books by size, do you?” He couldn’t help making a remark.

“Oh, I do, I do!” He chuckled, while stepping to the shelf Yukimura assumed he crashed onto earlier. “It’s just a habit of mine, you see.” There was a playful hum coming from his lips as he put the books he had in hand back into the shelf, each surprisingly in its exact correct place despite him insisting on having everything in order.

“That’s some weird habit.”

“Perhaps,” he went back laughing, “But it comes in handy sometimes.”

Yukimura thought there was no point on pressing further on that matter, thus couldn’t do nothing else but to sigh. He slowly proceeded to bend down and pick the remaining books up from the floor as well.

“Ah no, you don’t have to!”

“Please.” He replied, continuing the work even though he had not that much free time to sort the books by size in his arms. “It’ll save time.”

The Hufflepuff seemed to hesitate, but seeing Yukimura wasn’t planning to change his mind, he played along. It would indeed, save time if they tidied up together.

“Speaking of which, I didn’t catch your name.”

“Seiichi.” Yukimura replied, “Seiichi Yukimura. Slytherin third year.”

“And you’re out here studying until this late?” Another laugh followed the comment. “I guess not all rumors about Slytherins being tardy are true.”

The Slytherin couldn’t hide the tiny frown that almost immediately formed on his face. “I think it’s just proper manner to introduce yourself in this given situation, instead of, you know, trying to shame people you don’t even know that well.”

“Ah, no, no, that wasn’t my intention at all!” He nodded a few times, a little frantically as if hoping for instant forgiveness. “Just saying what I’ve been hearing, is all.”

Yukimura rolled his eyes as he slid the last book in the pile back to its place. That was quicker than he had expected. “So then?” He threw the other a glance. “You are?”

“Kuranosuke Shiraishi from Hufflepuff. Also a third year.”

As he introduced himself, there was a soft buzzing sound coming from him, from his back, to be exact. At first Yukimura disregarded it, but when Shiraishi started poking at what it seemed to be nothing but thin air, only then Yukimura could see where the buzz came from.

“This is my pet beetle, Kaburiel.” He laughed, an obvious air of pride in his voice.

“So _that’s_ what you were talking to.”

“Kaburiel gets lonely a lot, you see,” the tiny, almost non-visible insect in the dark landed on Shiraishi’s shoulder and made another round of that tiny buzzing. The owner just chuckled in glee, carefully but lovingly stroke its tiny back with his finger. “Sometimes she insists flying out her cage right when I’m trying to get some sleep.”

“And you’re saying that’s how you ended up crashing your face into the bookshelf.”

“Kaburiel didn’t mean any harm!” The way he got all fired up about the ridiculously trivial point was almost hilarious, Yukimura could just laugh at his unbelievable antics. “She just wants to play.”

“Well next time, try playing somewhere else.” Yukimura sighed, a part of him didn’t believe he was still a part of this conversation. “Somewhere that wouldn’t involve you smacking yourself into objects and cause a mess.”

Shiraishi raised an eyebrow. “Did I disturb you that much?”

“Quite.” Yukimura sighed in reply, although it was a little too audible that it sounded more of a hiss. “I have some work due in the morning and I’m clearly not getting anywhere with it and you broke my concentration right when I was about to get inspired.”

The one accused just hummed a tiny ‘Oh,’ and with all honesty it made Yukimura wish he could punch his dumb looking face straight in the nose.

“What class?”

“Potions.”

“I can help.”

“I’d rather you not.” Really? Yukimura would’ve probably preferred to let his pet beetle scribble something on his scroll instead of trusting its owner to help him with homework.  That was just how much unreliable Shiraishi looked in his eyes at the moment.

He figured the other would get offended, but instead what he saw was another fit of chuckles and giggles, and Kaburiel started flying and buzzing again as if it was dancing through its owner’s joy.

“I might not look much, but I’m really good with potions.” Shiraishi smiled, “Give me a chance, at least? I’d hate to see you getting a detention first thing in the morning tomorrow.”

“And that would be because of you.”

“Exactly.” Shiraishi snapped a finger in full pride, as if what Yukimura just said was supposed to be a compliment. “That’s why, give me a chance?”

Yukimura didn’t see any reason to refuse any further, not in his situation, at least. Not when he really needed to get this done and over with and that he still wanted his portion of six hours of sleep before another tiring day full of lectures.

“Fine.” He crossed his arms, his eyes signing malicious warnings but it seemed the other wasn’t paying enough attention to feel at all threatened. “But waste any second of my time, Shiraishi, and I’ll see you off back to your dorm.”

“Huh, so it’s just as what they say.” Shiraishi grinned, the playful tint never leaving his face.

“What is?”

“Slytherins get soft when given what they want.”

 

“I’ll rip you off your senses.”


End file.
